Commentary

 

Born

  
Visit at the Nursery, by Jean-Honoré Fragonard

In a general sense, being "born" in the Bible represents one spiritual state producing another, usually some form of love or affection producing or "giving birth" to truth or to desires for good. This is not hard to see: If you love someone, that love naturally gives birth to ideas on how to be good to that person and make him or her happy. This is why sons and daughters in the Bible represent true ideas and desires for good. On a higher level, though, being born represents what the Writings call "regeneration," or the life-long process of putting off our natural thoughts and desires and embracing spiritual life from the Lord. This is what the Bible means when it talks about being "born again" – if we live our lives from the Lord, He will eventually take away our evil desires so that we can be "born" as angels in heaven, free of evil desires and dark thoughts. Of course, these two levels of meaning are really one: The Lord is love itself, and if we align with Him we become forms of love and truth ourselves, expressions of His love just as the desire to do something good might be the expression of your love for a friend.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #8982

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8982. 'And [she has borne him] sons or daughters' means truths and forms of good which are derived from that good. This is clear from the meaning of 'sons' as truths, dealt with in 489, 491, 533, 1147, 2803, 2813, 3373, 3704, 4257; and from the meaning of 'daughters' as forms of good, dealt with in 489-491, 2362, 3024. The fact that they are derived truths and forms of good is self-evident, because 'the woman', the mother from whom they were born, means spiritual good, 8981, and 'generations' means derivatives in the internal sense, 1330, 3263, 3279.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.